ARCTIC DESIGN AGENCY
"Arctic Factory has inspiring and evocatice methods for
service design."
Miia Palo
The Regional Council of Lapland
DESIGNER
JULIUS OFÖRSAGD
Julius Oförsagd is the founder of Arctic Factory and our creative director. Besides of his works as a designer he has earned a reputation as an inspirational lecturer and trainer of service design, strategy and brand.
Julius has travelled all over the world as a consultant, keynote speaker, award jury member and design ambassador.
Julius has also worked as a brand manager of The Guides and Scouts of Finland and produced different design events and festivals globally.
ARCTIC FACTORY
DESIGN AGENCY
Arctic Factory is a global minded design agency from Finnish Lapland. Our roots are in arctic design and we think that when we design something to work in these conditions it will work anywhere. For us, arctic represents hope, pure nature and highclass facilities.
We are an agile business partner with strong expertise of service design and customer experience. Our mission is to solve more or less wicked problems with interdisciplinary design teams.
Some highlights along the way
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS & SERVICES
R-COLLECTION CIRCULAR ECONOMY CONCEPT
R-Collection has produced top quality, functional leisurewear for four decades. We co-operated with Design Forum Finland and created a new and innovative circular economy and marketing concept based on history of R-Collection.
During 2018 led the circular economy and design project for R-Collection. We identified the needs and challenges of R-Collecion during the workshops we facilitated. After that we started to define the actual challenge and we found a solution we started to test and iterate with R-Collection.
In the end of the project we had created a new marketing concept based on the company's long history as a manufacturer of quality products. The concept represented circular economy thinking and involved R-Collection customers in a fun and sustainable campaign.
AURORA HOLIDAYS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Arctic Factory is an official Innovaatioseteli service provider of Business Finland. With Innovaatioseteli funding we helped Aurora Holidays to develop their new services and commerzialice them.
Aurora Holidays is a combination of accommodation at extraordinary northern location and true expertise of Northern Lights hunting. Our job was to help them develop & design their new products & services and link them to their brand & values.
During the project we provided service design (challenge identifition, ideation, customer path mapping, service blueprint, customer profiles, prototypes, testing, mystery shopping) and branding (brand strategy, marketing strategy, productization).
After the Innovaatioseteli project we ended up to go even further with Aurora Holidays and we've been their design partner and supporting them with the implementation and lauch of new products and services.
You can read more about Innovaatioseteli here
and about Auroda Holidays here
LUCKY RANCH LAPPISH EXPERIENCES
Arctic Factory is an official Innovaatioseteli service provider of Business Finland. With Innovaatioseteli funding we helped Lucky Ranch to develop their new services and commerzialice them.
Lucky Ranch offers accommodation, western riding lessons and large variety of outdoor activities. It's located next to Pyhä Ski Resort and Pyhä-Luosto national park. During the year 2019 we operated as a service design partner for a them to consult their product development project. In this project we defined the customer groups of the product and provided customer oriented development and service design.
Our goal was to create a new service / product to be offered outside of a busy winter season. During the project we helped Lucky Ranch to create year-round business-generating service concepts.
You can read more about Innovaatioseteli here
and about Lucky Ranch here
LAPLAND VILLAGE STORIES
Lapland Village Stories was a project that collected stories from residents of six Lappish villages, compiling materials for tourism marketing in Lapland and a mobile application.
In 2017 we operated in a marketing and mobile application project as a service design partner and facilitator of story workshops. The municipalities of Sodankylä and Pelkosenniemi and the city of Kemijärvifunded this project of new marketing solutions for tourism.
During the project we visited six Lappish villages and facilitated many workshops with the residents. Our goal was to find and bring up the genuine identity for the region.
Some highlights along the way
PUBLIC SERVICES & SOCIETY DESIGN
SUOMI FINLAND 100 YEARS CELEBRATION IN LAPLAND
The Republic of Finland celebrated its birthday and 100 years of independence spectacularly in 2017. Designer and producer Julius Oförsagd coordinated the celebration in the province of Lapland. Theme of the year was "Together".
Oförsagd's job was to co-operate with the Prime Minister's Office of Finland and compile an event calendar of hundreds of events in Lapland's anniversary year. Oförsagd also co-operated with events from Paris to Ustjoki. Oförsagd also assisted the PM's Office team in planning and coordinating the nationwide Finland 100 project visibility and branding.
Oförsagd coordinated collaboration between event creators, coordinated provincial grant rounds and designed & implemented a communications & marketing plan for the anniversary year.
The international media was particularly keen on the epic lighting project carried out by Kari Kola, in which the Saana fell at Kilpisjärvi was illuminated for a bright blue color of Finland.
Watch a short video about Saana fell illumination here
"DESIGN IN BUSINESS" LECTURES AT UNIVERSITIES
Arctic Factory has experience in coaching and training of design thinking, service design and branding. In addition to working with companies, Julius Oförsagd has been a guest lecturer at the universities from Rovaniemi to Helsinki.
Arctic Factory has been involved in development, production and training in Finland and abroad. Since 2018 Julius Oförsagd has been guest lecturer at the University of Lapland and the Summer University of Northern Ostrobothnia, where he has lectured about "Design in Business". At the Open University of Helsinki he has lectured about "Brand and Visuality".
The core content of Design in Business is to help participants understand the role and opportunities of design in business, to open up content and tools in the field of design, and to substantiate the business benefits of design through statistics and experience.
During the years, Oförsagd has earned a reputation as an inspirational lecturer and trainer of service design, strategy and brand. Arctic Factory is known for memorable and inspiring lecture and workshop experiences and trainings have been described as eye-opening, highlighting the importance of service paths and experience, and the benefits of design in developing business, products and services.
Read more about our workshops and lectures from here
REGIONAL COUNCIL OF LAPLAND & SITRA
The Regional Council of Lapland ordered a workshop and development project from us. We ended up to find answers to the question "How do healthcare and design thinking come together?"
We designed and produced a design coaching program for 13 Finnish hospitals and health centers. The program was founded by the Regional Council of Lapland and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. During 2018-2019 Arctic Factory worked as a builder and facilitator and design partner for the "Entraus" health center customer experience project.
Our job was to design and produce a customer-oriented development coaching program, facilitate all the 15 workshops and provide expert content for service design and branding.
The aim of the project was to enhance the participants' capacity to develop customer experience, knowledge management, brand and communications, service design, measurement, leadership and employee experience. Under our leadership, the project carried out an extensive survey of the current state and needs of health centers, trained in customer-oriented development and utilization of service design, and created a strategic basis for co-operation between health centers in the Lapland region.
The project resulted in an implementation plan for five priority development sites, which the health centers set out to implement. In addition, a co-operation and peer-to-peer network between health centers was launched.
Watch a short video about Entraus healt center workshops here
ARCTIC
DESIGN
WEEK
PRODUCTION
Arctic Design Week is an international design festival based on Rovaniemi. In just a few events, a Volkswagen designer and a Finnish entrepreneur can snow-surf, ride electric snowmobiles, and sit by the campfire under the Northern Lights. We made it happen!
Julius Oförsagd and Arctic Factory has been producing this event during the years 2011-2018. Our job was to make things happen and also develop the content and services of the design week. We also co-operated with international World Design Weeks -network.
One of our creations were the MishMash -conferences. Our mission was to develop something totally out of the box and transform an old fashion business & design seminar to an extraordinary arctic experience. During these events we co-operated with Finnish Defence Forces at Sodankylä and Rovaniemi military bases. We took the conference guest and keynote speakers to military base and in the middle of snow and arctic conditions to show what arctic design actually means.
Watch a short video about MishMash 2017 here